brooding

brooding
—broodingly, adv.
/brooh"ding/, adj.
1. preoccupied with depressing, morbid, or painful memories or thoughts: a brooding frame of mind.
2. cast in subdued light so as to convey a somewhat threatening atmosphere: Dusk fell on the brooding hills.
[1810-20 for def. 1; 1640-50 for def. 2; BROOD + -ING2]

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      in zoology, pattern of behaviour of certain egg-laying animals, especially birds, marked by cessation of egg laying and readiness to sit on and incubate eggs. incubation (q.v.) itself is the process of maintaining uniform heat and humidity of the developing eggs, usually accomplished by one or both parents sitting on the eggs at all times. Many birds develop a brood patch—an area of bare, featherless skin on the underbody—in preparation for incubation and brooding. A network of blood vessels in the skin of the brood patch raises the temperature locally. After the hatch, the parent birds brood their young, keeping them warm by spreading the feathers out, umbrella-like, so the young can maintain contact with the skin of the adult. In domestic fowl the term “broody hen” refers both to a sitting (incubating) bird and, later, to the same hen brooding her chicks.

      Among invertebrates, some sea anemones (e.g., Epiactis) develop brood pouches on the body wall, wherein the embryos develop.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • brooding — rood ing, a. good at incubating eggs, especially of a fowl kept for that purpose; as, a brooding hen. Syn: brood, hatching. [WordNet 1.5] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • brooding — rooding n. the process of sitting on eggs so as to hatch them by the warmth of the body; mostly used of birds. Syn: incubation. [WordNet 1.5] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • brooding — rood ing, a. 1. worried and thinking long and intensely, especially about a particular problem. Syn: broody, contemplative, meditative, musing, pensive, pondering, reflective, ruminative, gloomy, morose. [WordNet 1.5] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • brooding — index contemplation, deliberation Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • brooding — (adj.) 1640s, hovering, overhanging (as a mother bird does her nest), from prp. of BROOD (Cf. brood) (v.); meaning that dwells moodily first attested 1818 (in Frankenstein ) …   Etymology dictionary

  • Brooding — Brood Brood (br[=o]ch), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Brooded}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Brooding}.] 1. To sit on and cover eggs, as a fowl, for the purpose of warming them and hatching the young; or to sit over and cover young, as a hen her chickens, in order to …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • brooding — [[t]bru͟ːdɪŋ[/t]] 1) ADJ GRADED: usu ADJ n Brooding is used to describe an atmosphere or feeling that makes you feel anxious or slightly afraid. [LITERARY] The same heavy, brooding silence descended on them. 2) ADJ GRADED: usu ADJ n If someone s… …   English dictionary

  • brooding — brood|ing [ˈbru:dıŋ] adj literary 1.) mysterious and threatening ▪ the brooding silence of the forest 2.) looking thoughtful and sad ▪ brooding eyes >broodingly adv …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • brooding — adj. Brooding is used with these nouns: ↑silence …   Collocations dictionary

  • brooding — brood|ing [ brudıŋ ] adjective 1. ) LITERARY making you feel as if something bad or dangerous is about to happen 2. ) looking as if you are thinking and worrying about something: the brooding expression in his dark eyes …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

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